/https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5fcd0a4439efedf1b505e8ce/0x0.jpg?cropX1=0&cropX2=3620&cropY1=284&cropY2=2321&w=1200&resize=1200,675&ssl=1 "Roald Dahl’s Family Apologizes For His ‘Incomprehensible’ Anti-Semitic Comments")
Topline
The family of Roald Dahl, the British children’s author who penned classics like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Matilda, quietly posted an apology on the late author’s website over the weekend for shocking anti-Semitic statements Dahl made.
The bestselling children’s writer Roald Dahl (1916-1990) whose stories include Charlie and the … [+]
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Key Facts
“Those prejudiced remarks are incomprehensible to us and stand in marked contrast to the man we knew and to the values at the heart of Roald Dahl’s stories, which have positively impacted young people for generations,” the statement read.
Dahl was openly anti-Semitic during interviews with British media outlets.
In a 1983 interview with The New Statesman, a British magazine, he said: “There is a trait in the Jewish character that does provoke animosity, maybe it’s a kind of lack of generosity towards non-Jews. I mean, there’s always a reason why anti-anything crops up anywhere; even a stinker like Hitler didn’t just pick on them for no reason.”
He told the London newspaper The Independent just months before his death in 1990 that he was “certainly anti-Israel and I’ve become antisemitic in as much as that you get a Jewish person in another country like England strongly supporting Zionism.”
In that same interview, he also pushed the baseless conspiracy theory that Jewish people control the media.
“We hope that, just as he did at his best, at his absolute worst, Roald Dahl can help remind us of the lasting impact of words,” his family said in the statement.
Key Background
In 2018, The Guardian reported that plans to issue a special commemorative coin celebrating Dahl on the the centenary of his birth were scrapped because the author was “associated with antisemitism and not regarded as an author of the highest reputation,” according to minutes recorded from a 2014 Royal Mint sub-committee meeting. Instead, coins were issued for William Shakespeare and Beatrix Potter. Many of Dahl’s stories have been adapted into popular films, like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda and James and the Giant Peach. Most recently, a movie based on his book The Witches starring Anne Hathaway was released by Warner Bros. on HBO Max in October.
Further Reading
Roald Dahl’s family apologises for author’s antisemitic comments (The Indepedent)
I’d still read Roald Dahl’s books to my children, but we can’t forget he was an anti-Semite (New Statesman)
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